“A first-day rush ,” “strong early interest ,” “high volume” — those are just some of the words animating Wednesday morning’s headlines about the first day of enrollment in Obamacare’s health care marketplaces.

Though the federal and state based websites experienced glitches and delays, leaving many frustrated, the strong public appetite for obtaining coverage appeared to surprise officials and undermined conservative claims that the public doesn’t know or care about the law.

More than 2.8 million people visited HealthCare.gov and some state-run exchanges also reported millions of logins. New York saw 10 million attempts to reach the site, California reported 5 million visits, 65,000 people visited the Illinois exchange — and submitted 1,100 applications– 78,000 Kentuckians logged on and completed more than 2,900 applications, and 55,000 “went to Colorado’s exchange site.”

Officials charged with implementing the law don’t expect the visits to immediately translate into sign-ups, pointing to the experience in Massachusetts, where uninsured people visited the website multiple times before eventually enrolling in health care reform. Enrollment will be open until March 31, though the uninsured have to sign-up by Dec. 15 to receive coverage on Jan. 1.